Las Vegas Market Expands Gourmet Offerings

By Lorrie Baumann

Las Vegas Market is planning to celebrate the specialty food products that are popping up in gift and gourmet kitchenware stores across the country that appeal to their foodie customers with a Gourmet Specialty Food Award presentation scheduled to take place on January 29 as part of the Housewares Design Awards event. Entries will be accepted until October 26 at www.housewaresdesignawards.com and will be scored by a jury of retailers.

Specialty food was also featured at the Las Vegas Market’s Summer Market, held July 29 through August 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Daytime high temperatures were well into triple digits, but the real warmth of the occasion was contributed by an army of greeters who met each incoming shuttle bus with shouts of “Welcome to Market!” as attendees made their way onto the World Market Center campus. Specialty food vendors were housed on the C11 floor in the complex as a TASTE exposition.

Vendors there included Skip’s Mix, a concentrated Bloody Mary mix that originated as a family recipe, according to Owner Derek Skipworth. “I kind of grew up drinking it — virgin, of course,” he said. Skipworth grew up, went off to college and did some tinkering with the recipe. Back from college now, he’s been in business for 1.5 years with his Bloody Mary mix that he says also works well as a marinade for fajitas, steaks and burgers. A 16-fluid ounce bottle retails for $20 to $24, depending on the market, and it’ll make about 16 full-size cocktails. The product must be refrigerated after opening, but until it’s opened, it has a shelf life of about one year. “It’s good for that long, but it never lasts that long once you get it home,” Skipworth said. For more information, email skipsmix@outlook.com.

Classy Delites is a line of dips from Austin, Texas. They’re offered in 10 flavors packaged in 12-ounce glass jars. Spinach Artichoke and Cheddar Queso are top-selling flavors, followed by Roasted Corn & Tomato Salsa, and then Pistachio Roasted Pepper and Spinach Avocado. The dips appeal to the consumer who likes gourmet food but needs to put something out quickly when entertaining at home. Ingredients are sourced from Texas farms, so these are authentically “Made in Texas” products, and all are gluten free, with no added sugar, no preservatives and no added color. The 12-ounce jars retail for $5.95 to $8.95. For more information, email orders@classydelites.com.

MV’S Best Virginia Cocktail Peanuts are produced and distributed from New Jersey but made with peanuts from Virginia. They’re offered in seven different flavors, including Sea Salt, Unsalted, Herbs & Spices, Hot Peppers, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and Toffee. The Sea Salt variety is flavored with JQ Dickinson Mountain Sea Salt, and all spices used in the products are organic blends from Spice Hunter. The chocolate comes from Valrhona. The 5-ounce can retails for $7 to $9, depending on the variety. A 10-ounce can retails for $11 to $17, and the 22-ounce can retails for $26 to $34. Virginia Cocktail Peanuts have a shelf life of one year to 16 months and will sell well in higher-end gift shops, according to Logistics Director Jack Eisenstadt. For more information, call 877.872.1957.

Louis Sherry offers a line of chocolate truffles made in the U.S., in the French chocolate-making tradition that started in New York in 1881. Company Founder Louis Sherry, later a founder in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York City, was born in Vermont and trained as a chef in Canada. When he came back to the U.S. to open his restaurant, he was happy to let customers think he was French. When Prohibition came along, and he could no longer offer wine to his guests, he decided to concentrate instead on his fine confections, according to Audrey Charlson, Director of Special Projects for Louis Sherry, Inc., who added that the building in which his original confectionery store was located still stands today at 53rd Street and Madison Avenue in New York City.
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Today, Louis Sherry chocolates are packaged in the same style of gift tin that contained them in 1881, and the boxes themselves are considered collector’s items, occasionally selling online, even new, for more than they’d cost in a retail store with the chocolates still inside, Charlson said. They’re offered in three sizes: a two-piece box, a 12-piece box and a 24-piece box. The two-piece box retails for $8.50. The 12-piece Heritage Collection box retails for $35, the 12-piece Designer Collection box retails for $40 and the 24-piece box retails for $75. Their shelf life is six months. “My chocolate is timeless. My collections are timeless. It makes a fabulous hostess gift,” Charlson said. “They’re going to keep the tins as collector’s items — and remember who gave it to them.” For more information, take a look at the Louis Sherry Instagram account at @louissherryny, call 212.849.2862 or email echarlson@louissherry.com.

Aunt Bee’z and Uncle Steve’z are a pair of lines offered by Brenda Sonner and her brother Steven. Aunt Bee’z is a line of old-fashioned dessert mixes and jams and jellies made from family recipes, while Uncle Steve’z products are jams and syrups in trend-forward flavors — most of them on the savory side. “I’m the sweet one — he’s the crazy one,” said Sonner. “I do no gluten free. I do no sugar free. We do old-fashioned — the way it used to be. Grammy would be proud.” Aunt Bee’z mixes, which are packaged in miniature flour sacks, include 1950s-style Chocolate Cola Cake and Soda Pop Cake Mix, Mama’s Chocolate Pie Mix and Aunt Sissy’s Butterscotch Pie Mix. The best seller in her product range is her Peaches N’ Whiskey Sauce, part of a line-up that also includes Pecans N’ Bourbon, Cherries N’ Moonshine and Praline Apples N’ Brandy Sauces. Four-ounce jars of the sauces packed in miniature Mason jar mugs retail for $4.95 to $5.95, while 8-ounce bottles retail for $7.95 to $8.95. They’ll do well in gift shops that draw tourist traffic, Sonner said.

Uncle Steve’z line of jams and preserves is offered in flavors that his sister thinks is “just weird,” even though she also thinks that some of them taste really good. They’re 16 trend-forward flavors that include Sweet Berry & Beet, Pineapple & Cucumber Jam with Cilantro, Green Tomato and Red Tomato. There’s also a line of jellies and syrups made with microbrewery beers. They’re made in very small batches in Tennessee, and 8-ounce jars will retail for $7.95 and up. For more information, email brenda@auntbeez.com or visit www.auntbeez.com or www.unclesteevez.com.

Finally, Hunter’s Reserve offers a line of jerkies and meat sticks made from wild game meat. “We do have some beef flavors, but our focus is on the wild game,” said Hunter’s Reserve Director of Sales and Marketing Max Hazledine. The products sell well across a wide range of retailers, including at parks and resorts, gift shops, or stores catering to active lifestyles, he said.

All products are gluten free, and while the meat sticks are offered in countertop cardboard display units, the company’s flagship merchandiser is a floor display that holds meat sticks, jerky, cheese bars, 4-ounce summer sausages, cheese spreads and crackers for a complete savory snack offering. For more information, call 612.750.9500, email orders@huntersreserve.com or visit www.huntersreserve.com.

The Winter 2019 Las Vegas Market will be held January 27-31, 2019 at the World Market Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 4,000 brands of home furnishings, decor items, gifts and gourmet products are expected to exhibit. For more information, visit www.lasvegasmarket.com.